The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-04-28

tryman Of Mr. Arnold. In it find examples of
bad grammar and slovenly English from the
pens of Sydney Smith. Sheridan, Hall, Whitley.
Carlyle. both Disraeis, Blair. Macaulay. Shaks-
peare, Milton, Gibbon. Southey. Bulwer, Goblet.
DR.. Samuel Johnson Trench, Lamb, Lander.
Smollet, Walpole. Walker (of the die
tonary), Christopher North, White,
Ms sso ssd ssnima dev F Mnrag
who made the grammar In Mr. Arnold's paper
on General Grants book find couple OF
grammatical crimes and more than several ex-
amples of very crude and slovenly En- gish-
enough of them to easily entit,e him to lofty
place In that list OF ilustrious delinquents just
named The following passage, all by itself.
ought to elect him: Meade suggested to Grant
that he might wish to have Immediately under
HIM Sherman, who had been serving with Grant
in the West He begged him not to hesitate if
he thought it for the good of the service. Grant
assured him that he had no thought of moving
him. and In his memoirs, after relating what had
passed. he adds etc. To read that passage a
couple of times would make man dizzy; to read
it four times would make him drunk. Great
laughter.l General Grants grammar is good
as anybody's; but it this were not SO Mr.. Breen
would brush that inconsequential fact aside
and hunt his great book for far higher game
Mr. Breen makes this discriminating remark:
To suppose that because a man is q poet. or a
historian, he must be correct in his grammar. is
to suppose that an architect must be joiner.
physician compounder OF medicines Mr.
the mighty Matterhorn to look out over the
Kingdoms of the earth. it might be a pleasant
incident to find straw berries up there; but great
Scott! you don't climb the MatterhoI n for straw
berries CONTINUED applause. don't think Mr..
Arnold was quite wise; for he well knew that
that Briton or American WAS never yet born who
could safely assault another mans English. He
knew as we'll as he knows anything, that the
man never lived whose English was fawless.
Can you neiieve that Mr.. Arnold was immodest
enough to imagine himself an exception to this
cast-iron rule-the sole exception discoverable
within the three or four centuries during which
the English language proper has been in exist
ence2 No. Mr.. Arnold did not imagine that. He
merely forgot that for a moment he was moving
into glass house, and he had hardly got fairly
in before General Fry was shivering the panes
over his head. Laughter.
people may hunt out what1icroscopc notes
they please, but after all the fact remains, and
cannot be dislodged, that General Grants book
is great, and in its peculiar department.
unique and unapproachable literary masterpiece
In their line there is no higher literature than
those modest, simple Memoirs Their style is,
at least, fiawless, and no man can improve upon
it: aud great books are weighed aud measured
by their style and matter, not by the trimmings
and standings OF their grammar. There is that
about the sun which makes US forget his spots
and when we think of General Grant our pulses
quicken and his grammar vanishes; we only re-
member that this is the simple soldier who all
untaught of the silken phrase-makers. linked
woruS togotuer Win an arC sur
passing the art of the schools. and
put into them something which will
still bring to American ears, as long as America
shall last the roll of his vanished drums and the
tread of his marching hosts. [Tumutuous ap-
plause. What do we care for grammar when
we think of the man that put together that
thunderous phrase Unconditional and immedi-
ate surrender and those others, Il propose to
move Immediately upon your works. 4 propose
to fight it out on this line If it takes all sum-
mer.' Applause.l Mr. Arnold would doubtless
claim that that last sentence is not strictly gram
NAUTICAL; and yet, nevertheless. it did certainly
wake ND this Nation as hundred million tones
of fourth proof hard boiled. hiLebound gram
mar from another mouth could not have DONE
And fLally, we have that gentle phrase-that
one which shows you another true side of the
man-shows that in his soldier heart there was
room for other than CORY war notices. and il
his tongue the gift to fifty phrase them. Let US
have peace" Prolonged applause and cheers